Dow, Nasdaq edge higher
Bargain hunters pounce on the downtrodden technology sector, pushing the Nasdaq composite up 25 points to close at 2,142.89.
The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 96 points to finish at 10,562.30.
"We have finally come to the point where we have a price-news divergence, meaning stocks don't go down on bad news," said Arthur Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies. "That is typical of a (market) bottom."
Intel moved up $1.06 to $30.38, while Advanced Micro Devices and IBM gained $1.39 and $2.61 a share, respectively.
Two more chipmakers warned of slowing sales growth as Vitesse Semiconductor and LSI Logic reduced forecasts for their upcoming quarters, blaming continued weakness from communications and data-storage customers. Vitesse shares closed up $1.25 to $39.06, and LSI rose 51 cents to $16.82.
The economic slowdown has also trickled down to Cypress Semiconductor, which said it would fall short of revenue expectations for the first quarter. The stock gained 27 cents to $19.13.
Juniper Networks added $5 to $58.63 even though USB Warburg cut its 12-month price target from $250 a share to $100 a share. Cisco Systems moved up 89 cents to $23.08, while Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks picked up 35 cents and 37 cents a share, respectively.
Among widely held PC stocks, Dell Computer rose $1.38 to $23.44; Apple Computer picked up $1.13 to $20.38; Gateway tacked on 62 cents to $16.07 and Compaq Computer finished up 7 cents to $20.07.
Amazon.com closed up $2.63 to $12.63 on speculation it would strike a deal with Wal-Mart, off 55 cents to $48.37.
AOL Time Warner rose $1.74 to $43.80, and Yahoo gained 50 cents to $22.19. eBay added 31 cents to $38, and CMGI finished up 9 cents to $4.06.
Microsoft rose 75 cents to $57.44. Oracle picked up 13 cents to $17, and Sun Microsystems closed up $1.31 to $20.94.
Staff and Reuters contributed to this report.